Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled

II Thessalonians 2:1-12

Are you afraid of the end of the world? Well let not your heart be troubled!

In His marvelous way, our Lord has guided us in these perilous times to Scriptures about the end of the world. And rather than depressing us, His Word has encouraged our hearts and excited us for all that lies ahead for us believers. Our Daniel study has been uplifting. Some may say, “How’s that? It’s doom and gloom! Doesn’t sound good to me. Sounds like a bunch of bad news.”

If you are not saved, it’s not a good end toward which you are heading. It is bad news. It’s time to be born again and change course, and then your eyes will be open to the thrill that is the last days, for we are approaching the final fulfillment of all God has in store for His children, both on earth, and in heaven in eternity. You see, the great blessing of being a Christian is not just about our future destination, but about what was our previous destination before we joined the winning side. It’s not just about what we are saved unto, but what we are saved from. The good news is absolutely made better by the bad news. The worse the bad news is in reality, the better the good news for those who have escaped the bad.

Next time you are in public, look around at the people. All of them look the same, generally. But there’s all the difference in the world. Every one of them is either saved or lost…on their way to heaven or hell. There’s no middle ground. There’s a gigantic chasm between the sheep and the goats. There’s an off the charts really bad end approaching for most, yet for some of us, the end is so good that no words will suffice.

1 Corinthians 2:9

"But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him."

vv. 1-2     Don’t let the approaching end of the world shake you or trouble you. Unless you haven’t been born again. But for the believer - It’s a good thing. It reminds me of what Jesus said…

John 14:1

"Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me."

He then proceeds to tell us about our mansions in heaven. If I had to face the tribulation and the end of the world, I would be shaken, and my heart would be troubled.

The Disturbing Message

The practice of sending forged letters in the name of Paul was common in those days.  This forged letter shook them up, saying that either Christ had come and they had missed Him, or He would not come until later, but they had to go thru the tribulation before seeing Him.  They were worried and troubled.  Anxiety became their mindset, thinking they were in the tribulation. 

There’s another disturbing message going around today, that we are in the tribulation right now.  It is being spread by those who don’t believe in the pre-trib rapture, they think believers will be taken out at the midpoint or at the end of the tribulation, and that the signs of the times say we are in that 7 year period right now.  They’ve been saying that throughout my lifetime!  And they were saying it in our text.

But the Bible teaches that we are not going into the tribulation as Christians.

1 Thessalonians 1:10
And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.

1 Thessalonians 5:9
For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,

Revelation 2:7
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches;

6 more times that passage says the same thing, “what the Spirit saith unto the churches” -- God is talking to the church, and the very next verse says,

Revelation 4:1
After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.

It’s the rapture trumpet!  And you don’t find the church anymore in Revelation, other than in heaven at the end, and returning with Him in the clouds at the end of the tribulation. [Note: you do see the church represented by the 24 elders, however, gathered around the throne of God in the first half of the tribulation, before the opening of the 7 seals.]

Now, this is interesting.

Revelation 13:9
If any man have an ear, let him hear. [not what the spirit sayeth, or to the churches!]

Where is the church?  Where is the Spirit?  Both are in heaven!

This is why I’m not looking for tribulation...but for evacuation!  I’m not looking for antichrist but Jesus Christ! His coming for the church is always presented as being imminent. No other signs precede it.

Truth sets us free…it settles us and relaxes us.  It does not disturb and shake up.

        Jesus said, "Let not your heart be troubled."(Jn 14:1)

        Paul said, "Wherefore comfort ye one another with these words."(1Th 4:18)

        2 Th. 2:17 "Comfort your hearts"

        2 Tim 4:8 says we will "Love His appearing."

To believe that the rapture comes at the end of the tribulation is absurd. If we are not appointed unto wrath, then how could we experience the horrors of the tribulation? Case in point: When the 5^th bowl of God’s judgment is poured out, demons ascend from the pit that are pictured as scorpions that sting people on earth, and it lasts for 5 months, and men desire to die for relief. But there’s a group that is immune, and it’s everyone who has the seal of God…it’s the 144,000 Jewish evangelists who are safe, and only them. If a believer were present in the tribulation they would be stung. So would their kids. No, we are not appointed unto wrath. And that’s just one of the dozens of judgments of the tribulation. So the rapture isn’t at the end of the tribulation.

Others believe the mid trib. or the pre-wrath position which places the rapture during the tribulation, but before the worst of God’s wrath is poured out. That would be after the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse ride. I know good people who believe this way and I love them and even see where they get it. They differentiate between God’s wrath and the wrath of Satan and the wrath of man. I have tried to be open minded in case I should be persuaded from my pretrib position. But I don’t see it and I settled that issue long ago and now I don’t engage in fighting about it. But it’s what our church doctrinal statement affirms, or I wouldn’t serve in office here. [By the way, when 1 Thess. 5:9 says we are not appointed unto wrath, it doesn’t say the wrath of God…just wrath. That could include the wrath of man or Satan in the tribulation.] So if you like, you can call me pre-wrath. I mean, if the rapture is before the tribulation, then it is before the wrath.

Though there’s a small amount of evidence that could be construed in their way, there is a mountain of evidence on our side. And there are other ways to construe their evidence that jive with our belief, but there’s really no way for them to explain away the mountains on the other side of the scale. And it bothers me that even though I respect and love them and try to be at peace about this issue, they usually don’t respond in kind. They say we are dead wrong, and leading others astray. They say we have no evidence at all, which is disingenuous, as I will show you. Bottom line, they are smarter than you…just ask them!

But wouldn’t the conservative thing be to prepare as if you had to face the tribulation? What do you have to lose? I’ll tell you what you lose: Your heart will be troubled.  Let not!  Don’t be shaken! Our faith should be in God’s Word, not our own plan. If you want to prepare, then live clean and prepare for His sudden appearing, so you aren’t ashamed.

Both groups will be in heaven, and neither will care about being right. I choose not to fight about a non-essential. But here’s some more evidence for you to mound on top of all we’ve already seen:

7 Reasons for a Pre-tribulation Rapture:

1.               Not one time is the church mentioned in a Bible text discussing the tribulation

2.               In all the writings of Paul, the church is never mentioned in connection w/ the tribulation or wrath to come.

3.               The church has already been judged at Calvary [purpose of trib. is judgment!]

4.               The pictures of Enoch/Lot, etc. God removed them before the sky began to fall. [all Bible types picture pre-trib]

5.               Rev. 4/5, 19 reveals church in Heaven during the tribulation.

6.               The coming of Christ for His saints is always pictured as sudden and unexpected [imminent/thief in the night] Otherwise we would just start a countdown once the tribulation started. In Jewish tradition the man and woman get engaged, and he leaves back to his father’s house to prepare their home, and then arrives unannounced to get her, after much time,  usually in the night.

7.               Daniel’s 70 weeks I showed you. The church wasn’t part of the first 69 [led up to the cross] and the church won’t be part of the 70^th [trib.]  Daniel’s vision was about Jews. Jesus was talking to Jews in Matthew 24. They have their own separate resurrection at the end of the tribulation.

No wonder Jesus said, let not your heart be troubled. If you are born again, you don’t have to worry about the wrath to come.

The Disturbing Message...

2.     The Deceptive Man.

v. 3-4       2 certain events will take place before the tribulation of wrath.  One is this ‘falling away.’  The apostasy.  It’s a departure from the truth of the Word of God.  Even the church at large will depart from the truth.  And that is happening.  It used to be that when you heard the label Christian placed on someone you knew exactly what that meant...but not so anymore.  “Saved” used to be a clear term...but not so anymore.  Baptist doesn’t mean what it used to...just like Presbyterian and Methodist have vastly changed over the years.  It’s the falling away...the apostasy!

This apostasy prepares the world to have this mindset, or intellectual atmosphere to be duped into believing in aliens and signs and wonders, and into receiving this man of sin, the antichrist.  He will be the epitome of sin, the devil incarnate.  [v. 8—‘that Wicked’] He commits the second event, the abomination of desolation.

He will be a peacemaker in a world desperate for answers.  He will be a world ruler.  And he will confirm a peace covenant between Israel and many other nations that is like the one being drafted today!

Until the rapture, there are 2 programs running at the same time in this world.  There’s the devil’s sin program and God’s salvation program.  But on that day the latter program will cease to run in its current format, and the former will run in full force. 

Disturbing message, deceptive man…

3.     The Deluded Masses.

v. 9-10     ‘powers, signs, and wonders’.  Sound familiar? 

Acts 2:22
Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know:

Hebrews 2:4
God also bearing them [the apostles] witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?

He is a counterfeit Christ, and many will believe He is Christ.

So, miracles will happen, but they are not all of God.  The devil himself can work them.  And some today seemingly purport to work them, but you cannot assume they are of God.  All that glitters is not God. Our Lord is not the only superpower.

v. 10        ‘Perish’ is in the present tense.  Those who reject Christ are already perishing. Received not=past tense.

Will people who reject the gospel have opportunity to be saved when they are left behind at the rapture to enter the tribulation?  No.  You shouldn’t count on that.  If you won’t get saved now when everything is working for you then you won’t in that day when everything will be working against you.

v. 11        God will give you what you have demanded.  God hardened Pharaoh’s heart...but only after he hardened his own heart many times.  God says, you insist on going that way, here, I’ll give you a shove.

v. 12        Again, believed not=past tense.

What else will happen in the days to come?

The temple is to be rebuilt. (v 4)

The Holy Spirit is to be taken out. (v 7)

The world will be deceived. (v 10)

The antichrist will be destroyed. (v 8)

You can stick around for the tribulation if you want, but I’m happy to say I won’t be here. Will you? Let not your heart be troubled!

Now, let’s have a burden for those who are on a path to a very bad end, and let’s share with them the good news!